PSILOPAIN
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Psilocybin in patients with Fibromyalgia: EEG-measured brain biomarkers of action
IRAS ID
275349
Contact name
Robin Carhart-Harris
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
Chronic Pain is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide and continues to impact more people every year. Fibromyalgia Syndrome is a type of chronic pain condition affecting around 2% of the global population. Symptoms of fibromyalgia include widespread pain, sleep disturbance, fatigue, and difficulty focusing. Treatment for fibromyalgia varies between cases and includes medications such as anti-depressants, physical therapies and psychological therapies. Unfortunately, these treatments are often only effective in the short-term, and sometimes not at all. This means there is a great demand for more research and treatment options into fibromyalgia.
The main purpose of this study is the measure brain activity under the drug psilocybin in a group of 20 people with fibromyalgia. Psilocybin is a controlled drug but also occurs naturally in Psilocybe fungus or ‘magic mushroom’. Recent studies, including our own, suggest that psilocybin may play a role in managing conditions such as depression, addiction, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) by working on the serotonin system in the brain. Psilocybin enhances “plasticity”, the brain’s ability to adapt and re-configure the well-established neural patterns which govern our mood, thoughts and behaviours. Such patterns are not only seen in depression, but also fibromyalgia. We aim to measure these changes in plasticity using electroencephalography (EEG). EEG is a non-painful and non-invasive technique which measures electrical activity in the brain. We propose that these changes in plasticity could be a mechanism by which the well-established patterns of fibromyalgia and beliefs about pain could be revised and result in therapeutically useful outcomes
REC name
London - Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/PR/1008
Date of REC Opinion
16 Nov 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion